Thursday, June 9, 2016

And the award goes to...


Right now, as you are reading these very words, there are a group of privileged ad agencies creatives making their final preparations for the flight to southern France.

I'm going to assume it's not you because RoundSeventeen is really aimed at a different market, the working class of the ad industry, not the Kool Aid drinking Adverati -- and you know who they are.

They're at the haberdashery, carefully selecting their new $500 Pharrell-type hats.

Or at the dry cleaners picking up their white, off-white and Navajo-white Capri pants.

Or at home figuring out how to jam three weeks of fashionable summer apparel into a bag meant to accommodate only one. And consequently, how they will bury the baggage fee into their shrinking holding company per diem.

I get it.

Winning awards is great.

I'd be a hypocrite to say I didn't understand the thrill.

At one misguided point in my life it mattered. And I have the pencils, the CA Annuals and the Beldings, all in a box in the garage, behind the Chanukah decorations we don't put up anymore.

Because now, truthfully, it doesn't mean squat. Nor, I suspect, does it mean squat to the 100 leading CMO's and CEO's in this country who steward billions of dollars in advertising revenue.

Do you think Tim Cook at Apple knows who won the Titanium Lion for Best Experiential Display in the $250,000-$500,000 Category?

Do you think Sergey Brin from Google knows, or cares, who won a Gold Lion for 30 second TV?

Do you think Ian C. Read, CEO at Pfizer gives a rat's ass that his agency did not get Silver in the vaunted Best Analgesic Pain Relief Category?

The fact that we are giving out awards for pharmaceutical advertising tells you everything you need to know about the worthless trinket chasing that commands our attention and robs thousands of employees of a raise, an end of year bonus and decent toilet paper in the restrooms.

Because of some previously mentioned logistical errors and some behind the scenes political agendas (oh my) some of the best work I did as a staffer never got entered at the prestigious International Festival in France.

As a result I'm never going to have a Cannes Lion. But that's not going to stop me from being entirely happy.

I have crappy neighbors for that.


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